Bill Maher: New Rules

Pretty funny this week.

On Olive Garden pulling their ads from Letterman:

"How do you boycott a restaurant you would never go to in the first place?"

The Daily Dish Has It All

Andrew Sullivan is really keep up to date with what is going on in Iran. Warning, there are some disturbing videos. People dying.

Give his site, The Daily Dish, a run-down.



Source: The Daily Dish

Opportunism

The arbitrariness of conservatism:

"Isn't it funny that conservative who used to complain about Obama's use of rhetorical powers as "just words" now think his relative caution in speaking out about Iran is a deep betrayal of everything American?"

Remember the belligerent "pre-K intellect" Palin crowds demonizing and marginalizing Obama for wanting to engage Iran. Opportunism, pure and simple.

Source: Talking points Memo

Iran Baddies On Motorbikes

The baddies in Iran, the Basij militia, look like they are out of a bad kung-fu movie.

Honda must be loving the free plug. The most feared motorbike in the world!

McCain's "Bomb Iran" Joke In Context

Think about the John McCain joke from last year, "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb-bomb Iran". It was horribly out of sync back then, now it seems decades off base.

Also, think about how during the elections and campaigns the conservatives railed against Obama and liberals for wanting to engage Iran. Now all the Republicans do is complain how Obama is not doing enough.

Yet another inconsistent, cynical, pure political move by the Right to score points. They have not respected the common people of Iran for years.

Thankfully the GOP's cartoon view of Iran is over. We now get to see the human element to this very complex situation. These are real people fighting a real struggle.

Irani Soccer Players Kicked Off Team

Those soccer players on Iran's National team who wore green wristbands in support of Mirhossein Mousavi in the game against South Korea on June 17 have been kicked off the team.

Um, your national colors are green. What a great message to send to your country and the rest of the world.

President Obama With Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert taping with President Obama. This is from the segment that aired the week the Colbert Report was in Iraq.

The end is classic. Colbert leaves a signed copy of his book. Must see.



Source: youtube.com/whitehouse

Debate Of Equals? GOP Hits All Time Lows

As the media try to plant the ending of Obama's honeymoon, "is it waning?", and the constant underestimation of his skills and vision, just remember:

NYT/CBS Poll: "While Republicans have steadily increased their criticism of Mr. Obama, particularly on the budget deficit, the poll found that the Republican Party is viewed favorably by only 28% of those polled, the lowest rating ever in a New York Times/CBS News poll. In contrast, 57% said that they had a favorable view of the Democratic Party."

and

WSJ/NBC poll: "25% hold a favorable view of the Republican Party, which is an all-time low for it in the poll. 45% hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party."

The GOP are hitting all-time lows yet the media would love to position everyone as equals. These are polls and they are about politicians, I get that, but they do echo how the GOP are wondering deeper into the political wilderness and have nothing but pessimism to offer.

So basically, a quarter of Americans remain in abject denial and the rest of us are looking for results from Obama and the Democrats.

Source: Political Wire

15 Years Ago Today: The OJ White Bronco Chase

June 17, 1994. Fifteen years ago today, OJ Simpson started a cottage industry for cable news and gave obsessive Californians a reason to live. Imagine if they had twitter back then?

"It's AC, I got OJ. Everything is OK"

Larry David On The Tonight Show

Larry David on The Tonight Show. His new movie, Whatever Works, comes out on Friday.

Conan has not found his sea legs yet. The dork thing is not as novel at 11:30.

The Daily Dish Has It All

Andrew Sullivan is really keep up to date with what is going on in Iran. Give his site, The Daily Dish, a run-down.



Source: The Daily Dish

Quote Of The Day: Barack Obama

No more bomb first, construct arbitrary reasons and intel later.

"The second thing that I think’s important to recognize is that the easiest way for reactionary forces inside Iran to crush reformers is to say it’s the US that is encouraging those reformers. So what I’ve said is, `Look, it’s up to the Iranian people to make a decision. We are not meddling.’ And, you know, ultimately the question that the leadership in Iran has to answer is their own credibility in the eyes of the Iranian people." — President Obama

Obama's prudent path is the correct one right now.

Promise Keeper Forgets The Main Promise

- Sen. John Ensign from Nevada.
- 2012 Presidential hopeful.
- Voted in the House to impeach President Bill Clinton over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinski and repeatedly called for the former president’s resignation.
- Publicly denounced the affairs and misconducts of other politicians.
- Prominent member of Promise Keepers, a hardcore all-male, Right Wing Christian evangelical ministry promoting family values.
- Ensign voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment.
- Big believer in the sanctity of marriage.

Cheated on his wife.
With a member of his staff.
Adulterer and hypocrite.

Republican.

"He has no credibility left." -- Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), quoted by the Las Vegas Sun in 1998, urging Bill Clinton to resign after he admitted an extramarital affair.



Source: RawStory

15 Protesters Outside Letterman

The shallow end of the gene pool protest David Letterman. Yup, 15 cretins feigning morality. Thanks to New York Magazine videographer Jonah Green for putting this together.

You know Sarah Palin fans are doing their job when, at a rally to defend women, they spew this counter to Letterman, "How dare he? When he has a bastard son, and a slut for a wife". The fact that Bristol Palin is a 18 year-old, unmarried single mother strikes zero irony with them. Oh! to be so dim.

Actual quote from a protester: "David Letterman will rape you with his mouth."

Other conservative talking points thrown around at the rally included, "Close the borders!" and "I only watch Fox News." Writers could not have scripted this gem.



Source:

Daily Show: Strong Island To Secede

The Daily Show's Samantha Bee covers "Should Long Island Be Its Own State?" Apparently some Strong Islanders want to secede.

Article One of the new State Constitution: No Homos.

There is a missing segment where she asks the three guidos to describe their new proposed State only using "awesome". F*ckin' mint.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Long Island Wants to Secede
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Quote Of The Day: Andrew Sullivan

"If you do not want to face the reality of what these courageous people are up against, go watch cable news."

--Andrew Sullivan

Some of the signs in English, they want the world to be aware.

Ed Schultz On Moring Joe

Joe Scarborough is "stunned" someone might think Dick Cheney has his self-interests ahead of the country's. Ed Schultz ain't buying it and believes Cheney, as CIA chief Leon Panetta pointed out, wants another attack in the US.

In Joe's world, attacking Obama is OK, attacking a chronically-dishonest ex-VP who attacks Obama is "off-base".

Here are some facts about Cheney [and they keep getting worse with each declassified document] that he is implicated with:

1. Ignoring, among others, Richard Clarke, who presented the incoming Bush administration with specific warnings about Al Qaeda.

2. Designating prisoners of war "enemy combatants" in order to hold them offshore and suspend all legal rights, including habeous corpus.

3. Directing the CIA to cherry pick intelligence and create false intelligence in order to support the argument that there were WMDs in Iraq

4. Torturing, in violation of the law, to acquire false evidence in support for an illegal war

5. Directing the preparation of fraudulent legal memos designed to provide cover for expanding and continuing a program of torture.

6. Setting his office outside the executive branch of government, in direct violation of tradition and fundamental constitutional principles, in order to avoid proper record keeping for historical review of his actions.

Still can't see Cheney's flawed character, Joe? Six military deferrals. Told Sen. Leahy to "go fuck himself". Shot his friend in the face.

Joe sits back, scolding his guests opinions, as a true war criminal like Cheney glides by only because there is an "R" after his name. What a smug little toad.



Source: Bob Cesca

Hitchens: The Election That Wasn't

The always amusing Christopher Hitchens' article, "Don't Call What Happened in Iran Last Week an Election", over at Slate.

Iran and its citizens are considered by the Shiite theocracy to be the private property of the anointed mullahs. This totalitarian idea was originally based on a piece of religious quackery promulgated by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and known as velayat-e faqui. Under the terms of this edict—which originally placed the clerics in charge of the lives and property of orphans, the indigent, and the insane—the entire population is now declared to be a childlike ward of the black-robed state. Thus any voting exercise is, by definition, over before it has begun, because the all-powerful Islamic Guardian Council determines well in advance who may or may not "run."

The current gerontocracy of mullahs is feeling Mousavi's youth movement. They may not be able to hold power as they did for much longer.

Source: Slate

Torture Is "Immoral And Useless"

The ACLU's Ben Wizner was on Rachel Maddow last night discussing recently released CIA information showing Bush's quest to classify embarrassing details about his torture program.

"Why in the world was that classified?"

And reading newly un-redacted portions of previously released memos how Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the guy Bush used as a reason for torture and its "success", said "I make up stories" and lied during interrogation, pretty much throws out the effectiveness and justification of the CIA's torture program.

Bush FAIL, Cheney FAIL, torture FAIL.



Source: RealityChex

Green Party Profile Picture For Your Online Lifestyle

Picture for your Facebook/Twitter/Myspace profiles. Show the Green Party in Iran and the rest of the world that you're listening.

Bill Maher: Obama Needs More Audacity

Bill Maher on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Thinks Obama needs to act more boldly and with more audacity when dealing with health care reform.

Maher said that Obama could use a little of Bush's decisiveness - without the misguided policies.

"When he wanted to get something done, he got it done... If Bush could go to war in Iraq when nobody was thinking about it, how come this president can't get through something like health care reform in a way that the people really want when people are actually for it."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Source: Countdown

The Manifesto

The Manifesto going around Iran resistance today.

1. Remove Khamenei from supreme leader because he doesn't qualify as a fair supreme leader

2. Remove Ahmadinejad from president because he took it forcefully and unlawfully

3. Put Ayatollah Montazeri as supreme leader until a review group for the ghanooneh asasi ( "constitution" ) is set up

4. Recognize Mousavi as the official president

5. A goverment by Mousavi and start a reform of the constitution

6. Free all political prisoners without any ifs ands or buts, right away

7. Call off any secret organization such as "gasht ershad"

Obama On Iran

President Obama's Statement On Iranian Presidential Election - 06/15/09

"It would be wrong to stay silent"

Such a tough line to walk, can't be seen as an International influence by the locals, I think he does it well. The emphasis on non-violence is especially good.

Going Green

Andrew Sullivan is going green in support of the Green Party in Iran. All his tweets and reports from Iran are in green font.

I have adjusted this blog's colors accordingly.

It's a small gesture, but it's a sign to the world that people are listening.

Source: The Daily Dish

1000 Words: Iran

Defying an official ban, hundreds of thousands of Iranian supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrate in Tehran on Monday, June 15, 2009. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

Figures that the "Internet Class" is Iran is starting an uprising that seems to be only covered by the internet/blogs and spread by it [twitter/Facebook].

Some more great photos at the link below.



Source: The Boston Globe

Quote Of The Day: Fareed Zakaria

When has the global casino industry gone bankrupt or insolvent?

"To call banks casinos, as is often done, is actually unfair to casinos, which are required to hold certain levels of capital because they must be able to cash in a customer's chips." -- Fareed Zakaria

And think about how much time, energy and technology casinos spend on keeping cheats and scammers out of their casinos.

You get caught counting cards, you get your leg broken.

The GOP's Trouble With Loving Terror

Wishing Presidents fail and hoping for future attacks for political reasons has the GOP wondering where they stand:

On June 15, 2009, Sen. John McCain criticized CIA Director Leon Panetta for saying of former Vice President Cheney, "it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point." Yet in years past, both John McCain and his chief campaign adviser admitted that an increased fear of terrorism would help Republican candidates, presumably by "making their point."

Back in June 2008, McCain chief strategist Charlie Black said, regarding another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him."

Greg Sargent also reminds us what McCain said the following about the release of a Bin Laden tape on the eve of the 2004 elections::

“Bin Laden may have just given us a little boost. Amazing, huh?”

"There’s no direct contradiction between McCain’s condemnation of Panetta for suggesting that Cheney wants another attack and his earlier claim that the Bin Laden tape would help the GOP. The point, though, is that McCain and other Republicans historically are not shy about making the claim that they benefit politically from terrorism."

Source: MediaMatters

Video Footage From Iran

Protesters around the Azadi Monument in Tehran.

Built in 1971 in commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, this "Gateway into Iran" was named the Shahyad Tower (meaning "Remembrance of the Shahs (Kings)") but dubbed Azadi (Freedom) after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It is the symbol of the country's revival, and intended to remind coming generations of the achievements of modern Iran under the Pahlavi Dynasty. It is 50 metres (148 feet) tall and is completely clad in cut marble.

Cheney's Gallows Politics

Jane Meyer article on the CIA and its current director Leon Panetta in this month's The New Yorker.

Here's how the CIA director, the guy in charge of keeping the US safe, assesses Dick Cheney's politics, vis a vis, his current re-writing of history speaking tour:

Panetta, pouring a cup of coffee, responded to Cheney's speech with surprising candor. "I think he smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue," he told me. "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

Gallows politics. What a great way to describe Cheney. And not to say he let 9/11 happen, but look how much power he gained by letting America get attacked.

Source: New Yorker

How Trillion-Dollar Deficits Were Created

Republican troll talking point crushed. Our debt and spending is almost all Bush. Info via Congressional Budget Office.



Source: NYT